The Road to Alan Wake 2 - A Documentary

[Music] Alan Wake is one of those franchises that feels unique not only in its gameplay mechanics and the way it tells its story but in terms of the heart and soul the developers put into bringing the games to our platforms before the franchise even hit the shelves it encountered many uphill battles announced initially during E3 2005 over the five or so years of the first video games development it went from being a multiplatform open world survival horror experience to an Xbox 360 exclusive linear action thriller experience now there are other documentaries that can tell you about the development struggles of the first game but my focus here is to give you a history on how remedy entertainment finally managed to bring Alan Wake 2 to life a journey that started on the 14th of May 2010 and unless something drastic happens prior to the sequel's release we end on the 27th of October 2023 my name is crano and this is the road to Alan Wake [Music] [Music] 2 it was the weekend before the launch of Alan Wake and many players across the world were eagerly awaiting the game's release due on the 14th of May 2010 for EU territories and the 18th of May 2010 for the US Alan Wake tells a story of the titular character traveling to Bright Falls with his wife Alice however not long after arriving she goes missing and Alan wakes up a week later to find he has somehow written a manuscript that is coming true whilst trying to find Alice he encounters the taken and the dark presence who are trying to stop him from uncovering the truth about why he is in the town in it you have to fight with light by burning away the darkness and then shooting the enemy Dead the game was also told in an episodic fashion similar to that of a television show reviews had begun trickling out from various news and review websites and the response was quite positive IGN's Charles onette at the time gave the game a 9 out 10 and claimed remedy has built a world that despite being a Fantastical realm of twisting shadows and realities Is solidly Anchored In authenticity outstanding environmental design and some brilliant visuals and sound make bright Falls and its mountainous surroundings look and feel alive though the camera can cause issues and the Supernatural story is more interested in asking questions than answering them it's a tough game to put down once you've started gam spots Tom mcir gave it an 8.5 out of 10 stating Above All Else Alan wake's gripping storytelling really sells the protagonist as a famous author every moment of this story is fraught with tension the clever storytelling ties in with the dreary atmosphere building on the fear established from the very beginning with subtle use of lighting and a moody musical score unfortunately the path you march down rarely offers any surprises which makes your actions take on a by rot feeling after a while but the combat is so satisfying that it's largely able to overshadow this misstep alen wake is a riveting Adventure that will keep you glued to the screen until the very end some reviews were of course less impressed with Chris Cola from wed scoring it at 6 out of 10 saying Alan Wake might be trying to preserve the Poetry of fear by leaving things unresolved but mostly it just left me feeling cheated by the end of the game I'd been bombarded with so many unexplained contradictory scenes that I didn't know up from down anymore some major plot Revelations later in the game introduce a whole universe of possible explanations and why not when we know the main character is just making it all up as he goes along when presented with an infinite number of possible resolutions any answer is going to feel arbitrary alen wake starts strong but finishes weak neither the game play nor the story deliver on their potential by the time the credits roll with an average Metacritic score of 83 out of 100 it's fair to say after 5 years of development struggles ramony will feeling pretty happy with the scores that were coming in on the 14th of May the game finally released exclusively on the Xbox 360 in EU territories with the US following 4 days later on the 18th of May however hidden in the background remedy were facing two slight problems the first was the video game industry's attitude towards games of the horror genre now whilst Alan Wake wasn't what you might call Survivor horror at the time promotional material seemed to show it Walked the Line and in the early 2010s horror games were often seen as a little undesirable this is partly due to the industry pushing for more action oriented games many games previously deemed as Survivor horror franchises were moving away from the genre and pushing that action narrative Resident Evil 5 alone in the dark fear 2 and even Dead Space 2 began drifting into it now if you've seen the box art for Alan Wake it was described as a psychological action thriller so it also walked that action game line the industry seemed to be clamoring for and so in a way it should have helped it blend right in but there was a bigger problem one big open world Western styled problem Red Dead Redemption was released in the US on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on the 18th of May 2010 the exact same day as Alan wake's US release with remaining territories following 3 days later on the 21st of May with an average Metacritic score of 95 out of 100 it overshadowed the average score of Alan Wake the interesting thing is that red dead redemption's development almost feels intertwined with Alan wakes as both games were revealed at E3 2005 Alan Wake behind closed doors and Red Dead Redemption at PlayStation's conference however Red Dead Redemption had something that Alan Wake didn't have Rockstar Games who had previously dominated the video game Market with Grand Theft Auto 4 Just 2 years earlier whilst remedy had not released a game since 2003 with max pain 2 meaning at the time of release most eyes were on Rockstar two weeks after both games' release MPD group who tracked video game sales at the time cited that Alan Wake had only sold around 145,000 ,000 units in the US during that time frame whilst Red Dead Redemption had sold over 1.5 million units over the next year and a half sold units for Alan Wick increased to 1.4 million due to those numbers initially not factoring in digital sales though on the other end of the spectrum the game was also 2010's second most illegally downloaded Xbox 360 game Garing more than 1.1 million downloads with the first being Dante's Inferno with 1.3 m downloads during the same year as the game's release remedy did also launch two downloadable content specials one titled the signal and the other titled the writer with the first DLC even coming free with every brand new addition of Alan Wake it's unknown exactly how well these two downloadable contents helped push base game sales but over the next few years the number of sales would slowly increase especially with the help of the long awaited PC version that arrived in February 2012 one week before the release of Alan wake's American Nightmare more on that later but suffice to say the sales the game did earn prior to 2012 weren't impressive by today's standards as explained by Sam Lake in an announcement video in 2013 When Alan Wake came out uh it was not a huge hit on day one we'll come back to this video later on as well but even after the poor sers at launch remedy weren't about to give up on the franchise [Music] for remedy a sequel to Alan Wake had been on the cards not long after the first game's release whilst this is a common practice across most developers to begin discussing a sequel REM had even gone as far as to create a prototype demo for what Alan Wake 2 could start out as this prototype which can still be found on polygon's YouTube page wasn't released to the world until 2015 in the video RAR detailed the various aspects of the Prototype stating that the demo was only made to be a sort of mood piece as they describe it the demo contains certain ideas that would later be incorporated into remedy's other games though I'll Point those out later in the demo an interviewer is making a documentary around Alan Wake who in their right mind would even do such a thing anyway the demo then cuts to Allan narrating his situation and his main objective was to reach the edge hotel where his wife Alice had been staying and that he had to get there before Mr scratch did a lot of the demos shared gameplay similarities with the first game though remedy wanted to try and do more with the environment especially with the taken enemies having their weapons get caught into other objects as well as using their environment around them to their advantage one key element in this demo involved Allan using his writing to change the environment which is a feature that would eventually be readapted into the official Alan Wake 2 game other potential gameplay mechanics included items freezing in midair only to eventually reanimate after being interacted with as well as brand new types of Taken enemies eventually Alan makes it to the motel only for a flying sorcerer to abduct the building with him in it because night Springs the demo then Cuts back to the interviewer with a man describing his cousin's interactions with who he thought was Alan Wake only for Mr scratch to enter the room and kill them both so as mentioned with this concept demo it's clear remedy were Keen to get the sequel going and so they reached out to Microsoft who published the first game to see if they would be on board you can probably guess what they said no but what they did eventually agree to was two games one smaller game set in the alen Wake universe and a new original game that would incorporate liveaction elements and be released on their upcoming Xbox One console they did also find finally agreed to that alen wake PC Port which as mentioned before eventually released in 2012 whilst parts of Remy began early development on the brand new IP other parts of Remedy were working on that smaller game throughout the next year after Alan wake's release various news tidbits would serve on a potential sequel to Alan Wake with one of the main ones being Alan Wake 2 appearing on one of the game developers resume in 2011 which was quickly removed later that week you'd be surprised how easily simple things such as this could cause such a stir back then heck even nowadays to try and quell these rumors a day later oscari hinen one of the heads of Remedy told joystick fans of the franchise will be excited to learn that yes more alen wake is coming but to be absolutely certain to avoid confusion this next wake installment will not be elen wake 2 but neither will it be DLC later that year in December 2011 remedy finally announced their next game at the spike Video Game Awards Alan wakes American Nightmare which then released 2 months later on the 22nd February 2012 exclusively on the Xbox 360 initially as a download only title as it was published on the Xbox Live arcade store front curiously this was only 1 week after the release of the original Alan wakes PC Port an American Nightmare wouldn't get its own port to the PC until exactly 3 months later on the 22nd of May 2012 as oscari had previously stated this was neither a sequel nor downloadable content to the original game but was a semi- spin-off to the franchise whilst it did somewhat continue the story of Alan Wake it wasn't set in bright Falls and was showcased as an episode episode of the in-game television series night Springs the game play was mostly similar to the original game though remedy did incorporate some of the ideas they had for their initial Alan 2 prototype such as the taken that turned into birds as well as telling a story that involved Mr scratch the game took place across three areas of the Arizona desert and involved Allan trying to get the story correct from manuscript Pages he'd find in order to defeat Mr scratch who was trying to take over Allan's life as well as a campaign the game came with an arcade mode aptly named fight till dawn which involved Alan fighting waves of Taken for 10 minutes until dawn arrived whilst the player tried to get a high score upon its release American Nightmare received average two good reviews with an average Metacritic score of 76 out of 100 with most reviewers agreeing that whilst enjoyable with its more action-packed elements it felt like a step back for the franchise with some weak dialogue and its tonal shift from the first game for example Johnny McKinley of Eurogamer said freed from the weight of expectation that accompanies a full retail release in this genre the experience while lacking the setpiece spectacle and spookiness of the original is less forced and more comfortably pitched as the title Intimates the story ends with question marks lingering over the nature of wake's experience but even if it really is his nightmare our troubled writer is arguably better company asleep than a W for some fans at the time myself included American nightmare had felt like remedy was potentially putting the Alan Wake franchise to bed with an ending that was left up to the interpretation of the player on if Allan got the happy ending he hoped for of course we know now that wasn't entirely the case however American Nightmare wasn't the only thing that got fans talking about the franchise as on the same day as the game's release on the 22nd of February 2012 over on blog spot a woman named Samantha Wells had begun writing a Blog documenting her time on moving into a new house for the first couple of months nobody really knew the blog existed until Sam Lake tweeted a link to it in June 2012 within the blog Samantha would detail some of the strange things she would find in the house as well as weird encounters she would have all of which seemed to relate to Alan Wake the dark presen and Thomas Zayn somehow the posts then stopped on the 29th of July 2012 and Samantha has remained silent since though you can still access the blog to this day some believed this was Remy teasing an announcement for an upcoming sequel though they remained silent as well despite this fans never stopped asking about an Alan Wake Sequel and in fact in early 2013 there had been rumors of remedy's newest gaming development potentially being that same sequel eventually fans would find out what was next next for remedy on the 21st of May 2013 Microsoft held a press conference to announce their latest games console the Xbox One initially the Xbox one was revealed to be an always on all-in-one home entertainment device that for a good portion of the conference showcased its television capabilities before any video games were even shown the reveal did not go down well for Microsoft as they didn't quite get the response from the gaming media nor the fans that they were hoping for eventually they did showcase some of the games that would be released for the platform with one of them being remedy's latest game titled Quantum break at first for a lot of Gamers there was some confusion as this new game showcased full liveaction elements something not commonly done in video games at the time though Remy had done some liveaction sequences in their previous games but on a smaller scale interlaced in the trailer were some in-engine gameplay that seemed to Showcase that time abilities would come into play whilst some fans were excited for remedy for a lot of the fans they were vastly disappointed that their latest game was not Alan Wake 2 and a lot of backlash came from the community as a result 2 days later on the 23rd of May remedy released a video addressing this hi I'm Sam Lake the creative director of Remedy I wanted to take a moment to talk to all Alan Wake fans that's you guys as you might have already seen or heard from the Xbox uh reveal events we are working on something new something big which of course means that the next big game from remedy won't be Alan Wake 2 in the 6- minute long video in collaboration with Humble Bundle Sam Lake the director of Alan Wake first explained how they had tried to get a sequel to Alan Wake off the ground but the timing just wasn't right he also mentioned that since the game's released it had sold three million copies across both the Xbox 360 and PC versions he was however hopeful of the future and stated that he would still love to make more Alan W content when the time was right later in 2015 Sam Lake would be interviewed by Game Informer where they would ask him 100 rapid fire questions one of those being will we ever get to play Allen wake 2 yes so Sam Lake had every intention of making a sequel but as he said in 2013 the time just wasn't right remedy would showcase Quantum break during its years of development with various demos which revealed the game to be a third-person action shooter about a man named Jack Joyce who would have the ability to manipulate time something you may remember was briefly tested upon in the Alan Wake 2 prototype demo the game was showcased to be a video game and television series hybrid where your actions in the game would affect certain elements of the overall narrative after you had played a few missions of the game you would make a choice in levels called Junctions and then watch an episode of the television show that had been filmed where you would watch some of the consequences of your choices take place unfortunately the game suffered a few delays where whilst it was announced in May 2013 it didn't release until the 5th of April 2016 and although it was initially announced as an XBox One exclusive it also released on PC the Same Day reviews for the video game were somewhat mixed to good with a Metacritic score of 77 out of 100 there were questions on if the video game to liveaction element worked in Quantum breaks favor though the general opinion of the game was a positive one at least it was on on the Xbox One version as the PC version had been mired with a variety of performance issues though most of these issues would be fixed later down the line one review from Dean Takahashi at Venture be gave the game a 90 out of 100 and stated the story is quite elaborate the human character animations are outstanding the performances are great and there are some real moving moments in the game it's two bad crashes disrupt the experience and I wish remedy would learn how to deal with repetitious content a less than Stellar review came from giant bombs Jeff gersman at the time who scored the game A4 out of 10 and said on one hand Quantum break fits perfectly into remedy's timeline representing something more grander and more cinematic than the fake TV shows and other ambitious little elements that have worked their way into the Studio's past work but it's probably telling that I was way more excited to watch Quantum breakes fake in-game TV show on various TVs found around the edges of the game than the one that was actually produced and shoved into the middle of the action there are a lot of sound ideas in the middle of quantum break but those ideas are the only things holding this project together the moment you look past that hady connective tissue every single one of quantum brakes individual elements fall flat one of the huge appraisals for the game was remedy's new in-house North light engine which showcased Stell graphics and animations it would eventually go on to become their main game engine going forward so whilst fans and most critics enjoyed Quantum break it of course wasn't Alan Wake too however remedy have been known to make references in their games to their past work the first alen Wick game had references to both max pay and death rally in Quantum break three specific references were found for Alan Wake one was of a woman playing Alan Wake on her work PC whilst Frozen in time which was less significant the the other two however would unknowingly help set up the future of the alen Wake franchise the first was a Blackboard which contains various text referencing Alan Wake awes which becomes significant later Thomas Zayn and even the blog mentioned earlier this house of Dreams the final reference was a video which involved an FBI detective named Saga Anderson and her partner Alex Casey a familiar name in the Alan Wake franchise in it they were investigating The Disappearance of Allan only to come into contact with who seems to be Mr scratch whilst both of these references were only intended to be Easter eggs at the time they would eventually go on to shape the future of Remedy and Alan Wake 2o this sent fans reeling with excitement that surely a squel to Alan weight 2 must now be coming however that excitement would soon be extinguished from alen Wick's release in 2010 until the release of quantum break in 2016 Microsoft had been a close publishing partner of Remedy because of the exclusivity agreements in place it had meant that remedy's games were being Limited in sales somewhat and so they opted to break off from Microsoft as a publishing partner for their next IP this meant though that any sequel for Alan Wake was off the cards since Microsoft held the publishing rights to the Alan Wake franchise however remedy would still work with Microsoft on another project so before we move on to remedy's next Mainline project in the timeline let's quickly take a brief detour about one game's development that started in 2016 which many were surprised to hear Remy were involved in in July 2016 it was announced they would be developing the story mode on behalf of smile gate entertainment For an upcoming first-person shooter named Crossfire 2 part of the franchise popular in South Korea and China remedy was chosen not only because they are known for their expert World building but because smile gate had hoped they could bring the Western audience into the crossfire Universe News of the game wouldn't really surface again until 2019 when the name was revealed to have changed to Crossfire X again news of the game quietened until the game released on the 10th of February 2022 where it was shown that Ry had created two campaigns titled operation Catalyst and operation Spectre the thing about these campaigns is that they were entirely separate to what remedy were slowly building up to they had no relation to do remedy's other works in any way so like this section of this video it seemed like it was more of a side project unfortunately for remedy and whilst it was a shared effort in the game's development with smile gate this marked remedy's lowest scored game in their entire history with a Metacritic score of just 38 out of 100 Crossfire X was criticized for its poor gameplay its Bland story and its overall game design what's even worse is that the game lasted a little over a year as on the 18th of May 2023 which if you've been paying attention is actually the 13th anniversary of Alan wake's US release despite there being no correlation between the two Crossfire X shut down its multiplayer servers and removed the campaign from being played it's an unfortunate misstep but at the end of the day every game developed is another learning experience anyway let's move back to the main remedy timeline it wasn't until 2017 that remedy would reveal their latest partnership on their newest IP in May of 2017 remedy had announced that they were working on their next game at the time it was only code named p7 and that their publishing partner was 505 games 505 had been in the games publishing business for more than 10 years at that point and two of the best parts of the deal was that a remedy would retain the full IP rights as they did not have for Alan Wake or even max pay any longer and B they were finally able to make a game for multiple platforms simultaneously for as mentioned earlier remedy had been for a number of years limited to the Microsoft platforms only granted at the time their newest game was initially announced for the xbo one PlayStation 4 and PC but that's still one non Microsoft platform more than before of course with a new game announcement for remedy this meant brand new rumors on what this new game could be perhaps this could indeed be Alan Wake 2 maybe Microsoft had given remedy permission to publish on other platforms or something maybe fans would even see their next game at the upcoming Microsoft E3 2017 press conference because they had been such an integral part of the last three remedy games and so Gamers across the world tuned into Microsoft press conference on the 11th of June 2017 and nothing maybe it would be announced at the PC gaming show no this meant there was only one platform remaining that this upcoming game was previously announced for PlayStation again game is tuned in and still nothing whatever remedy were developing Gamers wouldn't hear about it anytime soon a whole year went by and Gamers went through the motions once again they watched the Xbox E3 2018 conference no remedy game they watched the PC gaming show still nothing one final chance once again with PlayStation's E3 conference finally 45 minutes into the conference after the announcement of ghost of sushima and after a banana did a guitar solo a new game was shown that looked rather out there walls would shift the main character would float around she'd throw objects at enemies whatever this game was it was going to be a weird one and people were on board the Game's name control the developer remedy entertainment with five5 games as the publisher and the game being announced for a 2019 Release Control will be showcased as a third person action shooter where you play as Jesse feden who arrives a building called the oldest house looking for her brother Dylan in the building she enters a world of the paranatural as she encounters the Federal Bureau of control a governmental body who investigates mysterious incidents across the world as well as mysterious objects of power whilst at first it did not appear control would have any relation to Alan Wake or even previous remedy titles it didn't take fans long to realize something was stirring at remedy whilst remedy would promote control during 2018 and 2019 they would use the phrase altered world event as something the FBC would investigate which also had the acronym of a the phrase had been mentioned a couple of times elsewhere the first time was in a post of the this house of Dreams blog back in 2012 and the second time was in Quantum break on the chalkboard that talked extensively about Alan Wake now to many fans this just came across as fun little Easter X remedy are Masters in their craft after all and often like to tease what might be to come so for now the idea of things being connected was mildly put to bed fans would just have to wait and see meanwhile during control's development though in September 2018 variety announced that Peter Callaway would adapt Alan Wake into a liveaction television series with Sam Lake serving as an executive producer at the time the general consensus amongst fans seemed to be that if a sequel could not be made perhaps the story could be told told in a televised format Instead at least the Alan Wick 2 dream would somewhat be kept alive since that announcement and as of this video there's been very little progress updates with news articles only stating in 2022 that the show would be in development at AMC and that P Callaway had stepped away from the project though new producers were brought on let's get back on track though control would finally release on the 27th of August 2019 on the PlayStation 4 Xbox One and PC though for the first year only exclusively on the epic game store the game would go on to receive relatively High Praise with an average Metacritic score across all platforms of 84 out of 100 Jeff gersman from giant bomb at the time who you may recall didn't quite enjoy Quantum break gave control a five out of five stating Great Performances strong action and a solid sense of design all come together to make control one of my favorite games so far in 2019 control feels like remedy finally making all of its different interests play well together better than they've ever done it before piece of brown of Gamespot scored the game an8 out of 10 stating it's not often that a game invades my thoughts the way control has I'm at the point where I want to consume every last thing it has to offer and if I'm honest it also makes me want to go back and replay remedies past games too sure it's a faulty Metroid Vania in some respects but there are so many exceptional qualities of foot that control handily deflects any momentary IR I can't wait to take part in discussions about the game to see what others have figured out and to better understand where it all fits into Jesse's story however Dylan ch's review at we got this covered gave it a lesson Stella two out of five saying ultimately control is a massive misstep from remedy clearly the potential was here to craft something truly special however this latest off offering is merely a shadow of their far superior Alan Wake for a game about other worldly spirits and paranormal entities control is surprisingly soulless and that's soul crushing in its own ironic way the general consensus by the majority of the media was positive and even the fans generally agreed control felt like a breath of fresh air for remedy and the ideas of where this franchise could go next were plentiful even if Alan Wake wasn't a part of them as some players progressed through the campaign of control they found their way into the containment sector of the oldest house in it they encountered two Collectibles the first was a coffee thermos with odia Diner written on the front if you've ever played the first Alan Wake game these were Collectibles Allan would pick up across bright Falls with 100 in total to collect the second collectible they encountered was a document titled typewritten page procedures and upon approach an apparition of a man typing away on a typewriter would appear over a manuscript page placed behind tempered glass upon reading the collectible it directly mentions Alan Wake and bright Falls where it reveals the events at bright Falls as an awe this of course got people talking once again whilst developers would often make references to their own games the general consensus is that if you don't own the rights of a game or have been given permission you can't directly name characters or places from it within your own game you can only really be vague Quantum break was allowed to reference Alan Wake because remedy was still in a publishing partnership with Microsoft for control that agreement had ended so how on Earth were they allowed to do this well back in July 2019 1 month before controls release this had already already been answered as remedy revealed to Eurogamer that they had obtained the publishing rights to Alan Wake where a remedy spokesperson said the only thing we want to clarify now that remedy owns the publishing rights is that we could bring alen wake to different platforms if we so choose we have nothing to announce for now we are fully focused on control releasing on the 27th of August so what could this now mean was a sequel to Alan Wake finally on the way a remake or remas perhaps for now though the future of remedy's games seemed to lie with the two upcoming downloadable content for control nearly one month after control's launch Romany revealed their DLC plans the first expansion would be titled the foundation whilst the second would be titled awe what caught many eyes however was that the art used for the second expansion awe not only contained Jesse faden in the bottom half but in the top half that appeared to be what looked like a man in a forest hor warning a gun and flashlight which was reminiscent to the box art of Alan Wake all people could do was speculate it wouldn't be long until further rumors began to circulate as in March 2020 remedy announced that they had signed an agreement with epic games who had published two new multiplatform games of theirs epic games' own store at the time was the only place Gamers could even play control after epic signed a one-year exclusive deal to prevent the game from being purchased on Steam the question remains however on what these two games could be for the article stated that the first project is remedy's most ambitious one yet a AAA multiplatform game already in pre-production the second is a new smaller scale project set in the same franchise the main speculation was that an alen wake remaster was in the works to be released on multiple platforms with a sequel to follow not long after though speculation is all it was at the time then in August 2020 remedy announced the first official crossover event with their second control expansion marking this the beginning of the remedy connected Universe this now officially meant that the events of Alan Wake and control took place in the same universe what wasn't entirely clear though was regarding remedy's other games was Max pay part of the RCU Quantum break heck even alak's American Nightmare was that considered Cannon all eyes were on this expansion if remedy went to all this trouble to obtain the publishing rights of Alan Wake and even made an expansion about the writer himself could this have meant what people thought it meant or was this just a way to finally put the writer's story to bed well whil the expansion did continue the story of Alan Wake and spoilers if you've not played it feel free to go to the time on your screen to avoid this at the end of the expansion the FBC started picking up signals from cauldron Lake in bright right Falls the location of the first Alan Wake game though it was coming from years in the future once again the fan base had been set Ablaze for this surely could only mean that a sequel was finally on the horizon yet things remained silent until mid to late 2021 when there are various reports of an Alan Wake remastered there had been previous listings on the Epic Gam store for a remaster in June 2021 found in the store's code though listings such as these can be common on digital storefronts with nothing ever coming to fruition moving to early September 2021 storefronts such as raketen and even Amazon UK had both listed Alan Wake remastered with Amazon even showcasing the box art and screenshots of Allen's new character model redy then announced an Alan Wake remaster on redy fan site the sudden stop on the 7th of September 2021 in order to help give it a well- earned boost in visitors and then following that on the 9th of September 2021 during a PlayStation showcase Alan Wake remastered was finally shown where for the first time Alan Wake would be coming to PlayStation consoles as well as being remastered for last gen and current gen consoles except the switch which would arrive a year later and the PC but exclusively on the epic game store since epic Gam GES were publishing it this then brought up the possibility of a sequel once again as if you recall in the announcement of the two game deal with epic games it stated there were two games in development set in the same universe with some speculating Alan Wake remastered was the smaller of the two titles if that was the case the other game had to be Alan Wake 2 right Alan Wake remastered launched on the 5th of October 2021 one worldwide which came with a few changes though none of it can Unbreaking one big change was the QR codes that were previously found in the original PC version of Alan Wake which in turn replaced the Microsoft codes in the original Xbox 360 release in the PC version when scanned these do one of three things take you to the Alan Wake Facebook page show a sentence that read huh turns out this isn't too bad if you're not sitting on a couch when you play it who knew or take you to a max pain constipation meme 2012 was a weird time instead in the remaster these were all changed to three visions of Alan Wake at a typewriter narrating about being trapped in the dark place what would be the need of updating these QR codes if the jokes were outdated Remy could have just removed them from the game unless we all come to a story with hopes and expectations looking for an answer sometimes it would be better to live with that hope without ever finding the story this is not the story you wanted to be this story will eat you alive this story is a monster and monsters where many [Music] faces on the 9th of December 2021 at the Video Game Awards Allan Wake 2 was finally announced I'm Sam Lake the creative director at remedy and we are about to announce Alan Wake 2 years of fanies Easter eggs and teasers all paid off published by epic games remedy and more specifically Sam Lake was finally able to make the sequel they had wanted to make for more than a decade the time was finally right the trailer showcased Allan standing in the middle of a screen as the environment changed from a forest to New York to Bright Falls and back to New York showcasing the locations we may be exploring Alan Wake 2 was announced to to release sometime in 2023 as remedy's first survival horror title the first game genre as mentioned earlier was set as a psychological action thriller and whil the first game wasn't exactly the scariest game it did have moments of tension and of course was originally meant to be a horror title and so moving ala wake 2 into the survival horror genre felt like the right direction as per the announcement at the game awards Romany stated that they would be going dark until they had something to share in the summer of the following year unfortunately Gamers didn't really hear much of anything about Alan Wake 2 in 2022 all that was really known was that Alan Wake 2 was real it would be a third person survival horror it would be developed in the north light engine and was coming in 2023 fans had waited 11 years for a sequel they could wait a couple more if needed and wait they did though in May 202 2 on the 12th anniversary of Alan Wake Remy did post an update stating that whilst they had hoped to have shown more Alan Wake 2 that year it wasn't quite ready to show a demo though they did provide some tidbits of concept art to tide Gamers over it wasn't until a year after that video in May 2023 that gameplay would be shown of Alan W 2 which to many gamers surprise introduce a brand new playable protagonist alongside Alan Wake named Saga Anderson an FBI detective who comes to brightfalls to investigate a mysterious cult it also showed Sam Lake as portraying a supporting character not seen in previous Alan weight games but named Alex Casey if you weren't aware Alex Casey is meant to be a reference to max pay and potentially a way to bring the character into the remedy connected Universe without explicitly naming him since Rockstar owned the max pain franchise the Gameplay trailer was short but it showed off a few Snippets of actual gameplay that many compared to being reminiscent of the Resident Evil remakes if Alam W 2 was going down that path then that was only an exciting prospect considering the critical reception of those remakes finally the trailer also provided a release date the 17th of October 2023 almost 13 and a half years since the first Alan Wake game and just in time for Halloween remedy released an FAQ for the sequel shortly after providing further details on what the game was about set 13 years after the first game players would portray both Alan Wake and Saga Anderson on their own Journeys Allan in the dark place trying to escape and Saga in bright Falls investigating a murderous cult what remedy wanted to try and do by bringing in a new protagonist was help Shepherd in brand new players so that they didn't need to have played previous games in the remedy connected universe so that Saga can help bring those same new and returning players up to speed on the events in a natural way however there was one thing in the FAQ that caught a lot of players eyes Alan W 2 would be a digital only release the reason for this was not to only help keep costs down for the game but that a lot of Gamers have digital only consoles anyway it's possible another reason may have had something to do with Alan Wake remastered as back in November 2022 when remedy leas their financial results it was revealed that remedy had not generated any royalties for the remaster signifying that perhaps the game wasn't very profitable it's possible remedy and epic simply needed to cut certain costs over the next 5 months remedy would slowly drip feed new information and gameplay on the sequel at summer gamefest 2023 a snippet of gameplay was shown of saga Anderson's story which showed a more goria battle with one of the taken enemies players did site concerns that the game was called Allan Wake 2 and yet not much of Allen's story had been shown though rany did reassure fans that more of his story would be shown later in the summer other aspects of the game were revealed in the meantime such as Saga having her own mind place where she can go to help piece together her investigations as well as upgrade her weapons and watch back various Collectibles it was revealed that Allan would also have a similar place as more of saga's playthrough began to Circ Ates it was clear that as mentioned the Resident Evil remakes were a huge inspiration to the gaml focusing on over the shoulder combat with a limited inventory system remedy also stated that there would be certain sections where players could switch between Saga and Allan's story or they could simply play through sagas and then Allen's before the main ending it was their choice throughout the course of 2023 though many other game developers and Publishers were also announcing release dates for the their latest games one common theme between them was that they were releasing their games in October 2023 the same month as Alan Wake 2 within a week of Alan Wake 2's release you had huge hitters like Spider-Man 2 Sonic Superstars Lords of the Fallen Forza Motorsport Super Mario Bros wonder and the Metal Gear Solid Master collection volume 1 there was even a rumor the unconfirmed Red Dead Redemption remaster would also release around Alan Wake 2 repeating history it seemed like Alan Wake 2 would be doomed to suffer the same fate as the first game where Red Dead Redemption stole all the Thunder knowing this remedy announced they would be delaying their game by 10 days to the 27th of October 2023 to help let things breathe a little October 2023 Is Still Remains a stacked release month as of this video but at least Alan Wake 2 wouldn't feel a little lost not only that it would also release closer to Halloween where Gamers across the world would be looking for that latest scare anyway at Gamescom Opening Night Live on the 22nd of August 2023 a new trailer was shown that revealed more of Allen's side of the story it showcased a lot of the liveaction elements that would be part of the game which is something remedy had Blended together in many of their previous games already it also brought the remedy connected Universe timeline into question as fans would wonder again what games were part of the RCU and which games weren't Alan wake's American Nightmare was deemed by some fans as non-canon yet here Alan was wearing his costume from that game the trailer showcased a character named Mr door which some linked to being a potential reference to Martin hatch from Quantum break but Microsoft still owns those publishing rights and then there's Alex Casey himself whose body actor is Sam Lake who was also the face of Max Payne so is Max Payne also part of the RCU after all Remy was also announced in 2021 to be remaking max pain 1 and two on behalf of Rockstar so could this mean that Remy had been given permission to incorporate him in officially in an interview with Entertainment Weekly Sam Lake clarified exactly what was and wasn't part of the RCU Cannon by stating the easy clear answer is that of our past games max pain and Quantum break are not part of the remedy connected Universe they are not part of remedy's plans that being said in a purely speculative Easter egg kind of way I do love the idea of enabling our audience to come up with theories I don't want to shoot them down on that level we are making questions possible and giving ideas to people that they can then form their own theories I think that's very much part of the fun to put it simply the only Games part of the remedy connected Universe at least for now are Alan Wake Alan wake's American Nightmare control and Alan Wake 2 finally across September 2023 remedy showcased more gameplay with news Outlet IGN getting to show off exclusive footage of saga and Allen's stories as well as remedy inviting the gaming media to a 3-hour long preview event at the start of 2023 all Gamers had to go on for Alan Wake 2 was the announcement trailer and a few concept art pieces as of early October 2023 there is now a plethora of content to chew [Music] through as of recording this Alan Wake 2 is now just 22 days away from release well it is unless something drastic happens like the game suddenly gets delayed or cancelled the 13 and 1 half year Journey has been long there have been glimmers of Hope and some disappointments but the journey the franchise has gone on is one that not many video game developers can tell so what's next well once Alan Wake 2 releases I'm sure Romy are going to take a nice little vacation after all there dream game has finally released any vacation would be well and truly earned no matter how the launch plays out after that there's the two upcoming expansions for the game which was announced back in May 2023 one titled The Lakehouse and the other night Springs then there's the control sequel a multiplayer control spin-off code named Condor the max pain remakes and another multiplayer title code named Vanguard remed are very busy after that who knows Alan Wake 3 a Quantum break sequel a brand new original title in the RCU time will tell what the future holds but one thing is for sure he's hoping it doesn't take 13 years to make this time hey Sam many thanks to Matt at Hidden machine for providing his voice for this video please do go check out hidden machine where they have numerous videos around the r Rec connected universe that will certainly peque your interest I'm crano and I'll See You In Bright [Music] Falls

Channel: Kranitoko

Views: 7,864

Keywords: alan wake 2, alan wake ii, alan wake 2 gameplay, alan wake 2 review, alan wake 2 trailer, alan wake 2 ign, alan wake ii gameplay, remedy connected universe, ps5, xbox series, pc, rcu, survival horror, alan wake, alan wake 2 combat, saga anderson, remedy entertainment, remedy, control, quantum break, max payne, death rally, max payne 2, control 2, alan wake's american nightmare, awan, road to alan wake, road to alan wake 2, alan wake 2 impressions, alan wake documentary

Id: u6RG9F3CJVM

Length: 52min 52sec (3172 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/funkafulicious]

never played any of the games from Remedy so this video is perfect for me. thanks